


Vacation Time

by Sheeana



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-07 08:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1891347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheeana/pseuds/Sheeana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the realms are safe from darkness and alien incursion again, Jane takes Thor on a vacation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vacation Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sandyk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/gifts).



When it was all over, and they were reasonably sure that Midgard and Asgard and all the other realms were safe from darkness again, Jane took Thor on a vacation.

"A working vacation," Darcy reminded Thor, while they waited in line to board the plane. "Because Jane doesn't ever stop working. Did you know the last time I had an actual holiday was never? That's gotta be against like, at least sixteen laws."

"You can take a vacation whenever you want, Darcy," Jane said, shaking her head. As they reached the front of the line, she held out her passport, then reached for Thor's wrist to guide him to do the same with his. She plastered a bright, not-at-all nervous smile on her face, glanced up at Thor to indicate he should do the same, and hoped the flight attendant wouldn't ask any questions. Getting through security with an alien boyfriend traveling on a fake (albeit extremely well-designed) passport had been bad enough.

"Thank you, Ms. Foster, Mr. Blake," said the flight attendant, and she ushered them on their way while Jane privately breathed a sigh of relief.

"I still find it difficult to understand what role these little books play in your system of travel," Thor remarked, when they were a safe distance away from the desk and no one but the family walking in front of them could overhear.

"Don't worry about it," said Darcy, waving her hand dismissively. "Let Jane figure out the Earth stuff. You do the space stuff."

"I can... handle that," Thor replied, testing out a phrase he must have heard from Darcy, and Jane laughed.

\---

The flight to Hawaii was what Jane would call "less than ideal." Thor didn't quite fit in the aisle seat, Darcy played her music just a little bit too loud, and Jane could have done without the hushed, hurried whispering all around her about the _Avengers_. After they landed, she took Thor by the hand, trusted Darcy not to fall behind, and couldn't get off the plane and get through the airport fast enough.

"Wait, Jane, slow down," Darcy complained, but she quieted when they got outside and felt the sun on their faces.

They found their hotel with minimal difficulty (and minimal arguing). Jane spent the first few hours arranging her equipment and taking stock of everything she was going to do in the two weeks they had before she needed to be back at the lab.

The rest of the afternoon was lost in a string of inane conversations (the definition of "room service," for one), but it still felt good to get away from her usual troubles for awhile.

\---

The second day was all sun and beaches and relaxation. Jane even left her notes in the hotel – but she brought her most important notebook. She'd learned that lesson the hard way. Since the incident in New Mexico, she always kept it with her, and she only showed it to people she absolutely trusted. That list was fairly short. She kept it in her bag, though, while she and Darcy relaxed on the beach on their towels.

Not far away, near the shoreline, Thor was beaming and loudly telling a group of teenagers a story that sounded like a fairy tale, complete with a terrible beast slain by the hero and a moral lesson. Sometimes Jane thought he'd wandered right out of a storybook. Then he always went and did something like save the world or tell her about alien technology to remind her what he really was.

"Your boyfriend's doing his best impression of a frat boy on spring break," Darcy informed her, lowering her magazine just far enough to peer over it through her sunglasses.

"Of what?" Jane turned to look at her, eyebrows raised.

"Never mind," Darcy replied, and sighed. She glanced up again just as someone handed Thor a surfboard, and then she rolled her eyes. When Thor waved at them, she waved back, but then went right back to reading before he could start showing off.

\---

In the evening, when the beaches were nearly emptied of locals and tourists alike, the night sky was cloudless and dusted with stars. Jane felt like she'd died and gone to astronomer vacation heaven. They walked along the edge of the beach, looking for a quiet, clear spot where she could set up her telescope.

"Why have we brought all of this? I thought the purpose of this sojourn was to relax," Thor said, but he'd hauled Jane's heavy equipment up over his shoulder and carried it without complaint.

"Yeah, it is," Darcy said absently, distracted by something on her phone screen.

"This work could not wait until our return?"

"Yeah, except for the actual looking at stuff part, most of it probably could, but no, it can't. Because Jane's a workaholic."

"A what?" Thor looked at Darcy, waiting for an explanation.

"This way," Jane said, and she took Thor's hand. She led him further down the beach towards a broad, open stretch, away from the trees at the edge of the sand, but before they got there she caught a glimpse of some lights between the leaves and she paused. When she glanced up at Thor's face, he wore a strange expression – a fond smile, like recognition.

"Come with me," he said gently, and took her hand more firmly into his. He guided her to the edge of the forest, and then reached up to hold back the leaves to let her see the lights more clearly. There were dozens of them, floating in the air between the trees. Sometimes they flickered, blinking on and off in the darkness. They looked like fireflies - if fireflies were the size of golf balls and perfectly round.

When she realized what she was looking at, Jane wondered if she should think about moving away. She'd had a bad experience once, getting too close to something alien. More than one bad experience, actually, but she couldn't exactly turn off her own curiosity.

"Fear not. I would not lead you needlessly into peril," said Thor. He strode confidently out among them, unconcerned about coming too close, even when one of them brushed against his shoulder. He glanced down at it, but then simply laughed and gently swatted it away.

"Oh, so only _necessary_ peril," Darcy muttered. "Good, because I thought we were getting just a little bit too safe around here."

"What are they?" Jane asked, holding out her hand to let one of the lights come near it. It shied away like a frightened animal, but then slowly drifted back until she could almost touch it.

"Far from home, but they can find their way back if they make the journey together." Thor cupped his hands and two of them came to a hovering landing over his palms. He brought them up to his face and then held out his hands, letting them go and watching as they soared up into the sky. Into the atmosphere. The rest slowly followed, one at a time until they had faded out of sight against the backdrop of the stars.

The three of them were left standing alone in the foliage at the edge of the beach, staring up at the night sky with looks of wonder on their faces.

\---

When the last of the lights had disappeared, Jane led Thor back down to the beach. They lay on their backs together, their feet bare, their toes digging into the cold sand. Jane let her knee bump against Thor's leg, and he reached out to brush some of her hair back from her face.

The stars spread out above them, thousands of glimmering lights all across the sky. Jane found Thor's hand and slid her fingers between his, pressed her smaller palm against his broad hand.

"Not so tiny and insignificant after all, are we?" she said, and nudged him with her elbow.

"I have never said nor thought that you are," Thor replied. The sincerity in his voice was palpable, but Jane didn't need it. She trusted him now. She trusted him to tell her the truth, and she trusted him to always come back to her, no matter how far either of them strayed.

They _were_ tiny and insignificant, and she knew it. She'd known it from the first time she peered through the lens of a telescope and saw countless stars and galaxies peering back at her. Meeting Thor had only driven the knowledge in deeper. She was a small person on a small planet in a vast universe. Even her entire universe was only one smaller part of a whole. It didn't bother her. It only made her want to see more, know more, learn more.

But right there, lying on that beach in the sand, with the wind tugging gently at her hair and her palm resting against Thor's hand - she didn't feel small or insignificant. She felt like she belonged right where she was, and the whole universe was laid out before her to discover.


End file.
